Films in the works: ‘Entourage,’ Belushi biopic

On the list — Doug Ellin, creator of the beloved HBO series “Entourage,” reported earlier this week that a long-planned movie based on the series is finally “a go.”

Ellin tweeted the news, along with a photo of himself and the cast arm-in-arm. Returning are stars Jeremy Piven, Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Dillon and Kevin Connolly. Piven won three Emmy awards for his work on the show.

The series, which follows the exploits of a young, rising movie star, had a lot of fun poking fun at itself. It also featured a lot of actors playing themselves (Anna Faris, Mark Wahlberg, Edward Burns).

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It’s been open knowledge that Scorsese and longtime collaborating editor Thelma Schoonmaker have been racing to cut a final edit of the upcoming “The Wolf of Wall Street,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a high-rolling stockbroker.

The film was originally set to be released on Nov. 15, but realizing that that was about as realistic as a wax museum, backing studio Paramount Pictures announced that the film’s release date has been pushed back to Dec. 25 – just sneaking in the year for Oscar contention.

An early cut of the film reportedly exceeded three hours. That wolf is hungry.

Paramount last week moved “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” previously slated to debut on Christmas, to Jan. 17 to make room for “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Belushi biopic — Production company Film 360 announced earlier this week that actor Emile Hirsch has been cast to play John Belushi in a biopic on the “Saturday Night Live” comedian.

The film is currently untitled.

The 28-year-old Hirsch starred in Sean Penn’s directing debut “Into the Wild” and the 2008 action film “Speed Racer,” directed by the Wachoski siblings, as well as the 2004 comedy “The Girl Next Door.”

One of the original “Saturday Night Live” cast members, Belushi also starred in films such as “The Blues Brothers” with Dan Aykroyd and “National Lampoon’s Animal House” before dying at the age of 33 in 1982.

The Force falters — Rumors hit the Web this week speculating on the release date for “Star Wars Episode VII.”

Fans and insiders say the film is behind where it should be in production if it is going to make its summer 2015 release date.

Now, news comes from industry insiders who say Lucasfilm president and “Episode VII” executive producer Kathleen Kennedy has asked backing studio Disney to push the date back to 2016.

That seems more reasonable, especially with recent news that director J.J. Abrams and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan have taken over writing duties from Oscar winner Michael Aarndt (some say he was hired just to do a 50-page treatment, anyway).

There are also rumors swirling that Disney and Lucasfilm are in the works to get a fifth Indiana Jones movie off the ground (in order to get Harrison Ford to commit to being in the next “Star Wars” trilogy).

So far, though, Disney isn’t budging on the release date for “Episode VII.” So get to work, guys. It can’t be that hard, can it? You’re only handling the most successful movie franchise in history.